MADURAI: In a significant reprieve, Durai Dayanidhi Alagiri, son of Union minister M K Alagiri, was granted anticipatory bail by the Madurai bench of the Madras high court on Monday in a multi-crore granite scam.

Many companies, including Olympus Granites, in which Dayanidhi Alagiri is a partner, were brought under the police scanner in the illegal mining scam that shook the state due to the enormity of violations and the huge financial loss to the state exchequer.

A case was registered against Durai Dayanidhi and his business associate Nagaraj based on a complaint from a village administrative officer of Keezhavalavu village in Madurai district under section 379 and 447 of IPC and also the Mines and Minerals Act and TN Public Properties (Prevention and Damages and Loss) Act. Durai went into hiding after the police launched a hunt for him and even alerted airports to prevent him from leaving the country.

His bail application was rejected twice following which police intensified the search for him and his associate. The bail application came up for hearing before Justice P T Selvam on Monday and he granted bail.

Meanwhile, DMK party colleagues said Alagiri, who attended a function of a DMK functionary in Madurai a few minutes after the anticipatory bail was granted, appeared happy with the developments.